MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) – Thousands of Russian nationalists and ultra-Orthodox activists gathered in Moscow on Monday in an annual march to protest against higher levels of migration.
Images from the Moscow suburb where the march took place showed demonstrators carrying Russian imperial flags and banners with slogans such as “Russians” and “Today a mosque, tomorrow jihad.”
Police said in a statement that 30 people were detained at the sanctioned event for “wearing masks, minor public order offenses, shouting Nazi slogans and using banned symbols.”
The march has taken place every year on Russia’s National Unity Day holiday since it was introduced by the Kremlin in 2005 to replace the communist holiday of November 7 celebrating the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
About 8,000 people turned out for the event, according to police - 2,000 more than authorities said attended the same march in downtown Moscow last year. Rally organizers said over 20,000 people attended.
Similar protest marches were held Monday in other cities across Russia.
The set piece nationalist demonstrations took place less than a month after violent anti-migrant rioting in the Moscow suburb of Biryulyovo raised ethnic tensions in the Russian capital.
Updated with new headline
